Flex Ltd. (NASDAQ:FLEX) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Shannon Cross: Thank you very much. Can you talk a bit about cash flow? And what I’m wondering, I mean, you’re holding to 80% of cash conversion over a longer period of time. But what are you doing internally to, I don’t know, maybe improve your visibility, manage inventory better, because it’s — I know some of what’s gone on obviously has been the golden screw. I’m guessing some of it has been working capital related to just the growth that you’ve had. So, I’m just wondering as you look at how the business has changed over the last couple of years, how you’re going about managing this, so that you can get back to the 80%, because I think that’s one of the few knocks on your stock right now is your cash conversion.

Revathi Advaithi: Yes. I would say, first, let’s start with, Shannon, that I really feel good about kind of the trajectory change that we’re starting to see overall with working capital and how we’re managing our customers. And I’m happy with the things we’re seeing. I’d say, overall, inventory is flattening out. And while we still have this whole incomplete kit issue, I would say, because we have a part missing here and there, particularly in Reliability, I feel good about the general underlying trends that we track to see the right direction in inventory. So, we do think that slips, and you’re seeing that kind of the start of this quarter in terms of our overall cash flow and we think that continues to improve. That is the reason why we’ve feel comfortable with sticking with kind of our cash flow conversion target, because obviously coming out of this, this business is going to generate cash.

I’d say in terms of longer-term, Shannon, my view is, we have — the thing about Flex that we have done really well the last four years is we have taken every burning platform and become more disciplined with it. So, underlying theme across the company is we have become more in planning. We’re helping our customers get more disciplined with it. And that will have longer-term implications in terms of how supply chains are managed, not for us, but all the customers that we touch, right? This is near and dear to my heart, supply chain and planning. And we think that this will really make us a better company and my aspiration will be to be better than 85% at some point in time. But I think we’re seeing good inflection points here, and that makes us comfortable with sticking to these targets.

Shannon Cross: Okay. Thank you. And then, just again on cash, can you talk a bit about cash utilization? You have Nextracker out there, I understand you’re not going to talk about it necessarily, but just in terms of cash generation assuming you move back, you’ll have excess cash. So, maybe can you talk a bit about what the landscape looks like in terms of potential acquisitions? Obviously, you’ve been buying back stock, but just in general your approach to returning cash to shareholders? Thank you.

Paul Lundstrom: No problem, Shannon. So, first, I’ll just say, I think if you look at our performance over the last few years, you’ve seen us to be disciplined and judicious when it comes to capital allocation. Specific to M&A, we have a robust process and a robust pipeline. But in terms of prioritization, when it comes to capital allocation, I would say, number one priority right now is supporting very strong organic growth, whether that’s with some working capital or if it’s internal investments or CapEx, very high priority, because we have a very clear path ahead of us for solid top-line growth over the next several years, and we want to make sure that we’ve funded the business for that. So that’s one. Stock buyback has been a priority for us the last couple of years.

I think we’ve been pretty vocal about our views on valuation and we’ve leaned into that. And so, I guess I would put M&A last. Although again, we remain disciplined, we’re going to be opportunistic, we have a pipeline, but at the moment, that’s probably our lowest allocation priority.

Shannon Cross: Thank you.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Mark Delaney from Goldman Sachs. You may ask your question.